A Vivienne Westwood strapless gown with sage and cream wide seer sucker like striped fabric bodice with point detail and puffy draping two button back closure, a black asymmetrical tulle over skirt and a Vivienne Westwood label. Under skirt is one half in bodice fabric and half in a woven red and cream stripe fabric. Size 8. Measurements: bust 32 inches, waste 32 inches.
Mother of punk and dame of deconstruction, Vivienne Westwood birthed the style of the punk movement in 1970s London. With no formal training in fashion, Westwood - alongside her ex-boyfriend and manager of the Sex Pistols, Malcolm McLaren - fitted the radical youth scene in distressed graphics and subversive imagery from the hub of their Chelsea boutique until her solo runway debut in 1981. Irreverent and inimitable, Westwood is notorious for her historical reconstruction, often reinterpreting classical silhouettes from antiquity. Socioeconomic message threads through much of Westwood's work, whether it be in the vein of ecological activism or explicit political manifesto, yet never in sacrifice for the garment's aesthetic pleasure. Highly coveted are Westwood's signature corsets and tartan skirt suits: a testament to her Anglican roots despite her anarchist ideology.

PROVENANCE From The Collection of Doris Raymond

Fashion